I realize this question will probably elicit as many varied responses as What Is The Best All Around caliber. That said, I'm going to pose the question anyway. For the experienced hunters, what scents have you used with the greatest effect? What has been a consistent performer for you in terms of scents? Doe in Estrous scents certainly will not work throughout the season however have you used Dominant Buck Scents, Acorn Scents, or no scents with any good effect. I have tried a number of scents on the market and personally like Cold Scent.

All that said, how are you applying your scents? Do you use a drag line? Mist the air occasionally from your stand? Spray it on scrapes? Or put it on the ground?

I'm a scent-free guy, or at least I try to be. I've played with a few doe in heat mixes, but never with any success.

But there is one odd scent thing that I have done, and while I cannot prove it has helped, it certainly hasn't hurt me. I keep my hunting clothing sealed in dive bags, never bring them inside and dress after I get out of my truck. That much is pretty common, but when I kill the first few deer of the season, buck or doe, I will take my outer clothing off and scrub the deer with them. You know how a deer has that musky odor? Well my clothing takes on a hint of that smell. I'm not a believer in "cover scents" but I figure that the whiff of deer musk might just hold a deer a second longer.

The deer scent industry is the biggest and longest running scam that hunting has ever had. It's even worse than Scent Lok. The urine scent industry is unregulated, so there are no standards by which to measure what exactly "doe-in-heat" urine actually IS. There are also no standards for it's collection, storage, or purity. In fact, there's actually no way to even know if the urine you are buying is even from a doe DEER! Female rabbits are also called "does", for example. Do some basic math on this people. Let's make a guess..... How many bottles of what's claimed to be "doe-in-heat" urine is sold every year, off the shelves of sporting good stores and through the mail? Let's take Tink's for example (I'm NOT singling them out, and I make NO claim that what they sell is not in fact real deer urine, and I have no reason to suspect that they do). An average size bottle of their deer urine is 4 oz. That'd be 32 bottles to a gallon. That's just one brand. My local Gander Mt. must have at least a dozen different brands and type on their shelves at any given time. Let's say they purchase 100 bottles of each type. That's 100 X 12 (various types)= 1200 bottles X 4oz. = 4800 oz. 4800 oz. divided by 128 (oz/gallon)=37.5 GALLONS of deer urine per store per year. Gander Mt. has ONE HUNDRED AND SEVENTEEN STORES! That's 4,387.5 GALLONS of deer urine, or 140,400 4.oz BOTTLES.......JUST FOR ONE STORE CHAIN!!!! If you assume that Bass Pro Shops and Cabelas have a similar number of stores, then that's 13,162.5 GALLONS of deer urine, or 421,200 bottles per year, and don't forget, this DOESN'T include all the smaller chains (Dicks, Farm & Fleet, etc.) and Ma 'n Pa stores and archery shops! I think it'd be on the conservative side to say that we're talking a grand total of 20,000 GALLONS, or 640,000 BOTTLES of deer urine sold per year. Now......an average sized doe deer will produce enough urine while she is in heat to make 54 TWO oz. doe-in-heat bottles PER YEAR. If we go by our 4 oz. quantity that's be only TWENTY SEVEN BOTTLES OF DOE-IN-HEAT URINE PER YEAR, PER DEER. That means that if all this is truely doe deer-in-heat urine then there has to be AT LEAST 23,704 captive does that urine is being collected from! Bottom line is, I think these numbers are LOW, but even figuring it this way, that's still A LOT of deer! Just food for thought folks. I'd like to know what you all think too. BTW: My source for some of this is from here: http://www.fastestbows.com/articles/hen ... ustry.html

Im not big on the doe in heat lures....Dominant buck urine is another story...most of the scent i use is placed ina drip bag....one trail cam i have 5different bucks checking the mock scrape ,and sniffing the bag and scent....one big ten point i have the picture framed above my computer..its a beautiful pic..real nice buck....if im not using a drip bag i dont do drags i would rather spray a few spots /or mist them...

Earlier this yr. i put some /active scrape in a spray bottle sprayed a spot 40yds from where i was using my climber and had a monster buck come in just after legal shooting light...he came charging in right to it...i could see his rack and hear him sniffing loudly sucking in all the scent...he stayed right there until i reached the bottom of my tree...than my strap clinked on the stand and he bolted...the scrape he made that i found the next morning was one of the hugest i have ever seen...with rack marks in it...

I also killed a nice 3yr old buck at a park that stopped and checked out the exact spot i sprayed with ''active scrape'..scent....biggest doe i have ever killed [i got this yr.] stopped and smelled ''active scrape'' scent i sprayed in an a bucks real scrape....I have never had such a reliable scent that hasnt spooked a deer yet that i know of....i do usually hunt 80-90 % of the time without it,but will use it on occasion and realize it could make or break a hunt...so far it has made the cut....Getting ready to eat some of that doe right now .with stir fry veggies..than off to work....!

I've been deer hunting for 40+ years, and for many of those years I tried scents of every type imaginable. I don't even want to think about what I spent on them and the various gadgets I bought or made to dispense them. In all those years all I can definately say besides the deer completely ignoring them, was one time I had 2 bucks spook from Tinks Gel that I had set out by the tree I was hunting from. The when the "smoking sticks" first came out, I had a doe and her fawn come by right after I got up in my tree after I put it out and the fawn came up to the stick. Then they never worked again. So I gave up!

I figure 3 decades was plenty of time for a trial period.

The only "scent" I now use is my own, which I liberally apply to some of the scrapes I see with the handy mulit-purpose applicator it comes with!

My own theroy on scents and lures is that if and when they do work, it's more of a curiosity type thing, and may very well never work again, or worse yet, a lot of other hunters start using that lure and then it actually becomes a WARNING to deer in a given area that a hunter is present!

@ scott...never heard of cold scent??....That being said i would just like to reiterate that i have tried more than a few over the yrs....

Here's how i would rate them-''active scrape''....9 ..when used at the right time this has been my all around favorite...consitent and deadly...proof is in the freezer!!!...Im in Illinois .not sure where you are from and each parcel is different with a different herd.

Pete rickard- ''Indian buck lure''....7 this stuff can and has worked more than one time...i have also had a few deer blow air and leave ....i do believe this to be because it was a park that gets a lot of pressure...and a lot of hunters using scents...and calls.....have had bucks come to it ...one of my dads favorites....13-16 mounted buck heads on his wall...12 of em came to his scent....none under 3 yr old bucks!

Tinks-5- i give this one a fairly low rating because it can be found anywhere and everywhere,,,,ther isnt a guy out there that hasnt heard of ''tinks''....my opinion may be biased ...i hunt at least 5 parks ....and i know this scent gets used at most of them....i find those orange containers and wicks at most of those parks...i should also state that i rarely if ever use scent while park hunting...deer can patteren scent of any kind as danger....store bought deer urine ...or human scent....

Im not real big on the ''doe in heat'' back several yrs ago when i tried several i had mixed results...this is how it played out for ME...

Top of the heap was ..Pete Rickard ''super doe''....i had a monster buck come down a trail of ''indian buck lure'' that i had placed out 75 yds a way from my stand ...leading to it....in a honeysuckle bush....i placed 2 cotton balls soaked in ''super doe''....

As i climbed this pine tree....and pulled my bow up i heard him tromping my way....when he found the scent in the honeysuckle...he destroyed the bush...and left a nice scrape....it was pitch black in the morning and all i could see was a huge glowing rack....this buck i chased all that yr...he was a 16 point buck with a ,massive rack....each tine tip was broke off....we dubbed him''bullwinkle''...he finally got taken outside the park during shotgun.

Another doe in heat that has produced in the past ...im not sure of the brand name...it has what appears to be a cartoon doe on the front with a red and yellow label...its cheap and has worked before....i had this by a quarry... in a drip bag.....i had deer coming to that thing for a week straight...the problem was it was all does and fawns...this was early nov.. in Illinois.....

There ya go...thats my 2 cents on a couple of scents and the end product of using them...it also is true... like anything else that using the wrong scent ..at the wrong time.... will result in poor results...just like bleating,grunting...and rattling....timing is critical.....

Its always a decision that can make or break a hunt...i dont rely on it as a ''fail safe'' ....but it can add to your arsenal....and when it makes the cut...its that much sweeter....!!

Im not going to say that guys who have had opposite results are doing something wrong...maybe they are ...maybe not...

Best idea,,make your property Doe Friendly, Then when the RUT kicks in, bucks will be seeking real doe scent! I have a small acreage of 40 acres. Few bucks of any size stay on it, until the rut ,,when they come from neighboring properties. I do have food plots and bedding areas, and some does that raise their young and stick around thru the fall. I don't like tromping around deer use areas, spreading MY scent, putting out bags and scents. Just let the girls put out the scent for me and the boys will come!